The New Touring Reality: When Merch Becomes a Primary Buffer
By Sophia Chu of Assembly
Merch has been part of touring for decades. Every artist, manager, and promoter reading this already knows that. What’s changed isn’t the presence of merch. It’s the role it’s being asked to play.
Recent analysis of why so many festivals cancelled in 2025 made clear how unforgiving live music economics have become. Costs have risen sharply, sponsorship has retreated, and once a tour is locked in, there’s little room to adjust if the numbers don’t work. The same pressure now sits on touring artists.
Production, crew, transport, accommodation, insurance, and venue fees have all gone up. At the same time, many of the traditional ways to absorb those increases have stalled. Routes are already lean. Teams are already tight. Ticket prices, in many markets, are close to their ceiling.
In that environment, merch isn’t a side quest anymore. It’s becoming one of the primary buffers between a tour that breaks even and one that ends in the red.
Merch offsets higher fixed costs by increasing revenue per show
Most touring costs are effectively fixed once a date is booked. Attendance is capped by the room, and adding shows to “dilute” costs is often high-risk and operationally exhausting.
Instead of relying solely on ticket income, merch spreads higher costs across the room by increasing how much value each attendee can contribute. Even modest increases in revenue per head (RPH) can materially change show economics when margins are already thin. Merch isn’t immune to venue commissions, but even after hall fees, it remains one of the few revenue lines where artists retain meaningful control over the net.
That’s why merch has moved from being “nice to have” to financially meaningful. It’s one of the only levers that increases total show revenue without changing capacity, routing, or dates.
Merch takes pressure off ticket pricing
Ticket pricing has limits. Prices are usually set well before the tour begins, and once they’re public, pushing them higher risks slowing sales or creating backlash.
Merch behaves differently.
Unlike tickets, merch spend is discretionary. Fans experience it as optional rather than compulsory, which makes it a safer place to absorb rising costs. By leaning more on merch, artists reduce how much the tour’s viability depends on pushing ticket prices or relying on perfect attendance every night.
This is also where the type of merch starts to matter more than it used to. When merch is expected to carry real financial weight, simply having something on the table isn’t enough. Fans are more willing to spend more on fewer items if those items feel intentional, durable, and wearable beyond the night.
From what we’ve seen through our work at Assembly, touring artists and managers are increasingly prioritising fewer SKUs, heavier-weight garments, or more limited runs that justify higher price points without relying on volume alone.
Quality, in this context, isn’t about branding. It’s about price acceptance. It’s what allows merch to support higher realised prices with less resistance, instead of relying on volume alone.
Merch offers flexibility where most tour economics don’t
As touring costs have become less predictable, flexibility has become a form of risk management in its own right. Ticket income is largely locked once a tour is announced. Pricing, splits, and guarantees leave limited room to adapt if costs rise after tickets go on sale.
Merch operates on a different timeline.
While it can’t be adjusted show to show, merch decisions can often be revisited at multiple points across a tour. If demand proves stronger than expected, quantities can be increased for later dates or future runs. If sell-through is weaker, production can be slowed or revised before further money is committed. That kind of adjustability is rare elsewhere in touring.
This doesn’t remove risk, but it does reduce exposure. Compared to most touring costs, merch is one of the few areas where artists and managers can adapt as a tour unfolds, rather than being fully locked into assumptions made months earlier.
What merch can’t do
We have to be honest.
Merch cannot compensate for poor routing, weak demand, or tours that shouldn’t be happening. It won’t solve the structural pressures of venue commissions or rising fuel surcharges.
What it does offer is a degree of control in a touring environment that has become increasingly rigid. It allows artists to increase revenue density, rely less on ticket pricing alone, and absorb volatility once they’re already on the road.
Merch is being treated differently now not because it’s a magic bullet, but because in an industry where the margin for error has shrunk dramatically, it’s one of the few tools left that can reduce exposure on otherwise viable tours.
Sophia Chu works on strategy and editorial at Assembly, where she collaborates with artists and managers navigating the realities of modern touring economics. To see how we think about merch planning under tighter touring margins, visit Assembly.
